Lluís Daunis Montada (1916-1979) began his passion for mineralogy when elderly, as a family father, and his love was due in large part to the love he always had for the mountains, wanting to spend as much time as possible in contact with Nature.
Self taught, he learned by buying books and meeting in his spare time with the collectors and merchants of the time: Joaquín Folch, Josep Cervelló, Enric Kucera, Soler i Pujol (Josep Palaus), S.E.C. (Suministros Escolares y Científicos), Figueras...
He began to gather his first minerals on weekends in outings to localities near Barcelona, and gradually expanded his range of action in Catalonia and then also throughout Spain, taking advantage of summer and Easter vacations. He was fortunate to live the golden age of searching for minerals (Montseny, Sierra de Madrid, Sallent de Gállego, Eugui...) and also had the success of being a great searcher. He was always accompanied by his wife Maria Ruscalleda and during many years also by his daughter Núria, to whom he passed his hobby, so that the two became his best and most faithful collaborators.
He was well known to have obtained very good Catalan specimens, being one of the pioneers in locating and finding good pieces of amethyst in Montseny, in the Les Mallorquines area, long before the modern discoveries, as well as very good examples of Quartz and Feldspars from both Catalonia and the Sierra de Madrid as well as Huesca.
Unfortunately he could never realize his dream: to retire and to devote all his time to minerals. He wanted to get started in microscope photography and also wanted to better document and organize the collection, but a disease took him at 63 years of age.
His wife Maria Ruscalleda maintained and expanded the collection until the last years of her life and passed it on to her daughter Núria, who has kept it until the end of 2017.

Núria Daunis

Lluís Daunis with his wife Maria Ruscalleda in 1972 in an exceptional geode in the Madrid mountain range that produced more than 25 boxes of specimens of Quartz and Orthoclase and in which they were finding more samples throughout several years.

Photo: Núria Daunis

DJ13AF8: “Book-like” aggregate of laminar Barite crystals with a pale pink color and with the edges coated by small very transparent and bright Quartz crystals.The sample is from the Daunis collection (a reference for the local prospectors of the Barcelona area during the period 1970-1980), and it is with an original handwritten label that we’ll send to the buyer.
Matagalls Mine (Sant Marçal Mines), Sant Marçal, Viladrau, Comarca Osona, Girona/Gerona, Catalonia Spain

Specimen size: 7.3 × 3.6 × 4.8 cm = 2.9” × 1.4” × 1.9”

With the original handwritten note from the Daunis Collection

Microcline with Quartz (variety smoky) and Epidote-Clinozoisite

DL14AF8: Two elongated Microcline crystals, one of them with the Baveno twin law and the other with double twinning by the Baveno and Manebach laws. They are on matrix with Quartz crystals and Epidote-Clinozoisite coatings.The sample is from the Daunis collection (a reference for the local prospectors of the Barcelona area during the period 1970-1980), and it is with a handwritten original label that we’ll send to the buyer.
Arbúcies, Comarca La Selva, Montseny Massif, Girona/Gerona, Catalonia Spain

Specimen size: 5.2 × 4.2 × 3.9 cm = 2.0” × 1.7” × 1.5”

Main crystal size: 1.9 × 1.7 cm = 0.7” × 0.7”

With the original handwritten note from the Daunis Collection

Front

Side

Quartz

Front

Side

Rear

DE48AF8: Aggregate of transparent and bright crystals, with a kind of faden inclusions and a very well defined Dauphiné twinning. The sample is of the highest quality from this area. These Quartz samples are one of the more notable surprises in the Daunis collection.We’ll send to the buyer a digitalized copy of a single label, commonly covering a group of similar samples from the same area.
Possibly Gallinero Peak area, Cerler, Benasque, Comarca Ribagorza, Huesca, Aragon Spain (± 1970)

Specimen size: 9.5 × 5.4 × 2.8 cm = 3.7” × 2.1” × 1.1”

Main crystal size: 8.4 × 2.7 cm = 3.3” × 1.1”

With copy of the handwritten note from the Daunis Collection

Quartz with Arsenopyrite and Muscovite

DD36AF8: Two clear and bright Quartz crystals that have some inclusions and are on matrix with small leafy Muscovite crystals and a very aerial group of very sharp and bright Arsenopyrite-Marcasite crystals.The sample is, very probably, one of the latest to be incorporated in the Daunis collection by Daunis’ wife Maria. We’ll send to the buyer an old commercial label that is with the sample.
Minas da Panasqueira, Aldeia de São Francisco de Assis, Covilhã, Castelo Branco, Cova da Beira, Centro Portugal